Over the Edge '98: In Your House

Legacy Review

Over the Edge '98: In Your House

May 31, 1998 from the Wisconsin Center Arena in Milwaukee, WI

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

The Steve Austin/Vince McMahon rivalry is now in full swing, with the opening video all about Vince as a classic tyrannical dictator and Austin the obscene, beer guzzling rebellion. Of historical note, this is the first ever WWF PPV to have an official TV-14 rating, though they'd been pushing the line for quite a while already. This show also has one of the best and most elaborate one-off PPV stages ever: a whole highway of wrecked and dilapidated cars.

LOD 2000 (w/Sunny and Droz) def The Disciples of Apocalypse in 9:56- Oh JOY, Droz is here. I'm sure you can hear the sarcasm dripping off that. Droz was a former NFL defensive lineman whose gimmick was being able to puke at will. You ever see that clip of Vince shouting "HE'S GONNA PUKE!"?. That's Droz doing the puking. JR gets some AWA namedrops in, Milwaukee was one of their regular venues. The DOA ride their bikes in. It's twins Skull and 8-Ball wrestling with Chainz in the corner for the DOA. The LOD jump after the bell and it's a 3 on 3 brawl...for about 15 seconds before Animal and JR says 8-Ball settle in the ring. I guess he can finally tell them apart, at least someone can. Animal tackle. 8B DDT (JR calls it a swinging neckbreaker) and legdrop. Animal with a dragon screw! That's one of my favorite moves and it's always crazy to see late career Animal break it out. He drops the close to below the belt headbutt and both sides tag. Hawk actually sells for Skull. Until Skull hits a piledriver, you know what happened then. Hawk neckbreaker and Skull gets beat down in the LOD corner. After getting knocked around for a bit Skull dodges a Hawk clothesline off the top and Hawk slides all the way down to the floor. Chainz gives him a clothesline. Droz runs over to fight Chainz off. JR gets in the story that Droz is famous for puking on the ball pre-snap during a Monday Night Football game when he was on the Broncos. Hawk hits a glancing at best clothesline in the ring but makes no attempt to tag. DOA work double teams and keep Hawk in peril for a while. Mostly with lots of choking. JR loses track of who's Skull and who's 8B again. Hawk dodges a....something off the second rope and tags. Animal runs wild and we're donnybrooking. Chainz distracts Animal and the DOA do the twin magic switch. Droz hits the DOA in the ring from behind, and Animal powerslams him for the pin. As much as you could expect from the DOA and late '90s LOD. 3/4*

The Rock comes out to say hi well before his scheduled match. He runs down Milwaukee with some so-so cheap heat. Not one of young Rock's better promos. Faarooq runs out to attack him. Rock misses a chairshot and takes it in the face. Faarooq piledrives Rock on the chair before the Nation come in to run him off. Rock gets neck braced and stretchered out with commentary saying his IC title defense later is now in jeopardy. The Raw-ization of PPVs continues.

Austin tells "you dumb bastard" Michael Cole he hasn't found anyone to be on his side against the stacked deck Vince is putting up against him tonight, but he doesn't care.

 

Jeff Jarrett (w/Tennessee Lee) def Steve Blackman in 10:18- Jarrett gave Blackman his first WWF loss to kick off this feud. Small things I notice: Lee (Col. Robert Parker)'s suits have gotten a significant upgrade since his WCW days. Blackman comes in with a couple of martial arts sticks and Jarrett bails. As soon as the bell rings Blackman baseball slides Jarrett on the floor. He whips Jarrett into the rail and Jarrett barely nudges it. He presses Jarrett back in the ring and hits a missile dropkick. Jarrett counters a backdrop with a faceplant, then gets his strut in and plays to the crowd. Blackman ducks a clothesline and hits a double chop. German suplex from Blackman for 2. He does some rapid fire strikes that are the complete opposite of stiff. Unstiff. Jarrett is tied up in the tree of woe and Blackman stretches him out. Lee distracts but Blackman cuts off Jarrett's attempted ambush. Commentary says Commissioner Slaughter has ordered the Rock to defend the IC title tonight no matter what. Lee grabs Blackman's boot, setting off another chase. This time Jarrett gets Blackman with a clothesline. He whips Blackman into the rail and Blackman hits it much better than Jarrett did. We see Al f'n Snow is on Spanish commentary, with Head! Head even has her own headset. Announcer pairing pitch: Head, and Kevin Kelley's new partner this Best of the Super Juniors, the Onion. Make it happen. Blackman misses a dive off the second rope. Jarrett dropkick for 2. Blackman gets a back elbow in the corner, but Jarrett gets his knees up on a Vader bomb attempt. They do the bridge up spot and Blackman gets a backslide for 2. Security evicts Snow from Spanish commentary, with the crowd sounding like it cares more about him than anyone in the ring. Jarrett sleeper. They do the arm drops and Blackman fights out. Blackman sleeper. Jarrett back suplexes out. Both guys are down. After a 9 count Jarrett covers for 2. Blackman suplex. He dives but Jarrett again gets his boots up. Blackman should stop trying that. Ugly double clothesline. Blackman backbreaker. Heel kick. Elbow drop for 2. Pump kick. Lee gets up on the apron. Jarrett almost hits him but stops just in time. Blackman clutch for 2. Lee still has the ref distracted so Blackman whacks Jarrett with one of his sticks. Jarrett gets a foot on the rope. Lee picks the stick up and whacks Blackman with it, and Jarrett covers for 3. An oil and water contrast of styles that for the most part never came together. *1/2

 

"Marvelous" Marc Mero def Sable in :21- The longrunning issues between Mero and Sable have finally come to a head. Mero told Sable to get any wrestler she wanted to represent her in this match, and if Mero lost he would rip up Sable's contract and set her free. But if Mero won, Sable would have to leave the WWF FOREVER. Sable comes out by herself in fightin' gear. She tells Mero she got into this mess, she'll get herself out of it. Mero acts devastated, wondering how it's come to this between them and if Sable wants her freedom that bad, she can have it. He tells the timekeeper to ring the bell. Mero lays down. Sable covers. At 2 Mero kicks, rolls Sable over, and pins her! Mero does a great heel over the top celebration and serenades Sable back up the aisle. NR

A devastated Sable is with Cole and says goodbye to the WWE Universe fans. Dok Hendrix is with the Nation. No one wants to talk to him. Rock is still in a neck brace and seems to be in serious pain.

 

Handicap Match: Kaientai (w/Yamaguchi-San) def Bradshaw and WWF Light Heavyweight Champion Taka Michinoku in 9:54- Taka was having a good initial WWF run, so he was able to convince the company to bring in some of his Michinoku Pro buddies. Kaientai consists of: Men's Teioh, who was more of a hardcore wrestler outside WWF and worked mostly with deathmatch company Big Japan Pro Wrestling as well as CZW in the US; Dick Togo, who mostly bounced around the smaller Japanese companies but is now the manager/heater for EVIL and House of Torture in New Japan; and Sho Funaki, who everyone now knows as FUNAKI, SMACKDOWN #1 ANNOUNCER, who's still with WWE today doing Japanese announcing and for years has been the company's lead ambassador to Japan. The story is Kaientai think Taka has gone American. I have no idea how Bradshaw got mixed up in all this but he's the perfect straight man for all this madness. The faces charge the ring and the brawl is on. The heels all get dumped out. Bradshaw presses Taka down onto Kainetai! Quick reset in the ring with Taka and Funaki. Funaki hits a dropkick. Taka tags out and Funaki quickly bails when he sees Bradshaw coming. The terrified heels stall on the floor and Taka tags back in. Teioh and Taka do a nice little sequence with Teioh hitting a clothesline. Another tag to Bradshaw and again the heels scatter like he's a kaiju marching down the streets of Tokyo. This time Bradshaw chases them, can't get his hands on anyone and starts getting frustrated. Well, he's Bradshaw. More frustrated than usual. Taka comes back in. Togo hits him with a flying forearm and some hard corner chops. Taka dodges in the corner and hits a tornado DDT. The pin gets broken up and everyone's in. Teioh manages to dropkick Bradshaw out to the floor. He tries a plancha. Nope. Bradshaw scoops him out of the air easily. Taka dive onto Fuanki on the floor! Back in Togo plants Taka with a wheelbarrow slam. Funaki delayed suplex for 2. Teioh big boot and double underhook suplex for 2. Togo springboard canonball for 2. JR tries to talk about the history of Kainetai. Lawler gets pissy and says he only wants to talk about Sable. Seriously? Togo snap powerslam for 2. Kaientai hit a 3D-like double team. Bradshaw runs in stomping anything that moves. Togo swanton bomb and more Kaientai double teams. Funaki hooks on a sleeper. Taka fights out and hits a flying forearm. The tag is cut off. Funaki hits a spinebuster into a triple team. Teioh piledriver. Taka dodges, hits everyone with spinning heel kicks, and gets the tag! Bradshaw comes in with big boots and clubs everyone. The heels try to overwhelm him with numbers but can't. Powerbomb on Funaki. Togo low blows Bradshaw and hits a shotgun dropkick right on the side of his head. All of Kaientai get on Bradshaw to pose! Bradshaw throws them all off. Clothesline from hell on Funaki. TIGER SUPLEX on Teioh! A tiger suplex. From BRADSHAW. If I hadn't seen it I wouldn't believe it. The pin is broken up. Taka hits a missile dropkick and tags back in. Michinoku Driver on Togo! Again the pin in broken up. In the confusion Taka gets chokeslammed. Togo hits a senton off the top and gets the pin. Inoffensive half comedy half serious fun, with lots of very crisp wrestling from the Japanese guys. ***

Sable does the walk of shame out of the arena.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: The Rock (c) def Faarooq in 5:02- Rock's music plays but no Rock. Slaughter comes out and gives Rock 10 seconds to show. At 2 Rock comes out through the curtain with the neck brace still on. Faarooq attacks him in the aisle. Rock is dropped on the guardrail. Faarooq takes the brace off and hits Rock with it. Big clotheslines. Rock slides back out and walks. Faarooq chases. The straps are down! He throws Rock back in. Rock gets a kick and clothesline. Apron elbows. Setup slam and Rock hits the still unnamed People's Elbow for 2. Corner slugfest. Faarooq ducks a clothesline and plants Rock. Falling headbutt for 2. Rock DDT for 2. Faarooq spinebuster. The ref counts 3, but Rock had a foot on the rope so he waves it off. Faarooq argues for a long while. I don't think this whole bit went as they planned it, it's a bit of a mess. Rock tries to ambush but Faarooq cuts him off. Rock does a leg takedown in the corner, gets his feet on the ropes, and gets a 3 count. Faarooq gives him a couple of more piledrivers after the bell. The Nation runs out again and attacks Faarooq. DX comes out to take the Nation out! To a very nice pop too. The face turn for DX is on. The match was OKish, but I'm not sure what all the show-long overbooking was supposed to accomplish. *3/4

 

Mask vs Mask Match: Kane (w/Paul Bearer) def Vader in 7:20- It's pretty silly to have Vader in a mask match. In WWF he's mostly kept it on, but in WCW and New Japan he'd regularly take it off when matches got serious. It was his pulling the straps down. Plus no one thinks Kane's going to unmask this early so the outcome is certain. Slugfest start. Short clothesline from Kane. Corner beatdown and choke. Vader gets a boot up and hits tackles. Kane goes down, but sits right back up. Vader tries a suplex. Kane blocks and hits it. Vader grabs a waistlock, can't get a German, so settles for potato shots instead. Big clothesline and elbow drop. Kane reverses a whip into another short clothesline. Clothesline off the top. Vader starts swinging wildly and catches Kane pretty flush with some of them, like something legit pissed him off. Kane big boot and clothesline. Another slugfest as it looks like things might be breaking down for real. Kane settles things down by hooking on some kind of overhand claw. JR shouts out Hebner for being back, his first show back after some medical issues. Chokeslam from Kane and Vader rolls out. He goes under the ring and grabs the super huge (and fake looking) wrench Kane worked him over with back at No Way Out. He whacks Kane with it on the floor. Back in Vader hits an avalanche. He goes up top. VADERSAULT! Kane dodges! Tombstone and it's over. It had some moments, but there were also long stretches where it looked like they were having serious issues getting on the same page and Vader might have been sending some of his famous stiff messages to the youngster. **

Kane removes Vader's mask. Another thing, Vader's mask was so small, surface area wise, we could always make his face out anyway. Kane gives the mask to Bearer, who puts it on and mocks Vader. "It's Bearer Time!". OK, that's funny. Vader does the slow, sad departure. Cole stops him ringside and Vader gives his famous "Maybe I'm just a big fat piece of shit" line.

Cole is in the ring for another regional wrestling history tribute. They were doing this semi-regularly at this time and I always appreciate things like this. I think part of the reason was the Hall of Fame was in limbo during this period. Cole introduces two Milwaukee/AWA legends: Mad Dog Vachon and the Crusher. Lawler gets increasingly agitated as things go on, so much so I want JR to pop him for real. But it's leading somewhere. Lawler hops in the ring, runs the legends down, and takes a Crusher punch. OK, that should be it. Lawler sits back down. Aw hell, he's getting up again. Now he grabs Vachon and takes his fake leg off! Well we already saw Diesel do that in spectacular fashion, you could never top that. Again Crusher tries to make it look like he's fighting Lawler off. Lawler gets in again and takes a shot from the leg. That got increasingly pointless as it went on.

 

The Nation (w/Mark Henry) def D-Generation X (w/Chyna and X-Pac) in 18:33- It's European champion Triple H and tag champs the New Age Outlaws representing DX, while the Nation team consists of Kama Mustafa, D'Lo Brown and the newest Nation member, freshly heel turned Owen Hart, now in his "Enough is enough and it's time for a change!" phase and wearing his Shakin' Hands With Danger gear (if you're a Rifftrax fan, you know). I love Trips' new robe. He does the full "Are you ready?" intro, then Road Dogg does *his* full promo spiel. The crowd eats up every bit of it. The Nation now has new music to go along with the change of leadership. Huge "Owen sucks" chant from the crowd. Dogg and Brown start with a basic hammerlock exchange. Brown hits a bunch of shoulderblocks. More basics and Dogg gets some shots in. Owen tags in and charges right into a Gunn clothesline. Gunn press slam. Owen spinning heel kick and backdrop. He goes for the Sharpshooter early. Gunn eye rakes out. HHH tags in and pounds longtime rival Owen down while JR mentions that their feud has been almost all HHH, he has Owen's number. Owen gets an inverted atomic drop. HHH comes back with a tiltawhirl backbreaker. DX continues working Owen over. Finally he gets a low blow on HHH and tags out to Kama. Kama avalanche on HHH. HHH facebuster. Gunn gets trapped in the wrong corner. He blocks a Brown dropkick into a slingshot and clothesline. HHH stomps Brown down in the corner. DX double team for 2. Brown goes in peril for a bit. He gets a boot up in the corner and tags. Owen gets a cheap shot in on Dogg from the apron. Dogg knocks him off the apron, allowing Kama to hit him from behind. Owen piledriver for 2. Neckbreaker and elbow off the second rope. Dogg is officially DX in peril. He gets some jabs in on Brown. Brown counters into his spinebuster. Dogg crossbody on Owen for 2. Owen hits the enzugui and goes for the Sharpshooter. HHH breaks it up. Brown hits his moonsault and the pin is saved again. Dogg dodges a Brown senton off the second rope and after much moment milking and a last second dodge gets the tag to Gunn. Everyone in the pool! Gunn fameasser on Brown. Henry and Chyna go at it on the floor. Brown gets spike piledriven into one of the tag belts but the ref is still distracted. Owen Pedigrees HHH onto the belt! Cover and a pin! Finally Owen gets a small bit of revenge on Trips. The match was solid enough. Everyone looked like they were trying, which could be hit or miss with a lot of these guys. **1/2

For the next match Vince has appointed the Stooges, Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco, as special ring announcer and special timekeeper respectively. The special guest referee? Well that's Vince himself of course. The deck has been stacked against Austin as much as possible. It all seems cliche looking back on it now, but at the time this was still innovative and original booking. Before the match Vince says that if Austin touches him in any way he will stop the match immediately and strip Austin of the title. He also says, very clearly and specifically, "By my hand only will this match end". The ring introductions are very long but stay mostly entertaining, with Patterson going full Michael Buffer in an obnoxious heel way and buttering up everyone on his side something fierce, while burying Austin and refusing to intro him at all.

 

WWF Championship: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (c) def Dude Love in 22:28- HUGE heat for Vince when he comes out with some stuff getting thrown into the ring. Love still has his cleaned up corporate look for this match. Just before Vince calls for the bell.....UNDERTAKER'S DONG! Taker, the only man on the roster Vince could possibly be afraid of, has volunteered to nominally be on Austin's side and make sure the match is called straight down the middle. The bell rings and we have a rough lockup. Vince breaks it up and gets a double bird from Austin. Love hits a shoulderblock and goes for a quick cover, with a mostly fair count from Vince. Headlock tradeoff. Austin uses Love's shirt to whip him. Love's false teeth are out! Austin stomps on them! Lawler says Love lost his smile. A rare good one from him. Austin Thesz Press and flying fists. He clotheslines Love 360 to the floor. Austin gets whipped into the steps. Vince tells Austin "No countout, I'm not saving your title that way, get back in". Love Russian leg sweep for 2 and he goes into beatdown mode. JR make a point of saying this is a normal one fall match. Corner knee for 2. Austin gets a swinging neckbreaker and clotheslines. Mandible Claw! Austin flips Love over the ropes to try to get out, and Love gets hung in the ropes! He puts the Claw back on! Austin gets him free and Love falls to the floor. Austin gets tossed over the Spanish announce table. Vince tells Patterson something. Patterson gets on the mic: "This is a reminder: this match is no DQ". JR: "SINCE WHEN?!". Love chokes Austin with a TV cable. Austin runs Love into the timekeeper's table. Brisco down! Love gets on the rail. Austin clotheslines him off and Love splats on the concrete! Austin makes a point of walking over Brisco as they get back in. Back in the ring Love dodges and Austin bounces off the ropes. A baseball slide sends Austin back out to the floor. Love neckbreaker on the floor. Vince again talks to Patterson. "This is a reminder: this match is falls count anywhere!". Love covers Austin in the aisle for 2. HUGE running clothesline from Austin. They go over to where all the cars are. Austin gets backdropped onto a car! Cover for 2. Austin flapjacks Love onto a car hood! He covers for 2. Brisco is out there with the bell. Love and Austin get up onto the cars. Austin goes for the Stunner. Love pushes out and Austin flies off, over another car hood and down to the floor! Love sunset flip off the car onto concrete! That gets 2. Love gets a giant pipe and nudges Austin with it, then rams his head into a trunk. Austin is busted open. He gets riled up and comes back with a punch flurry. Love backdrops out of a piledriver attempt on the floor. Suplex on the floor. He climbs up the cars again. He goes for the Cactus Elbow! Austin dodges! Cover for 2. They work back into the ring. Patterson trips Austin. Love hits a clothesline and punches Austin's cut. He takes a top turnbuckle pad off and runs Austin into it. Running corner knee. Another exposed buckle shot. Austin gets another wind and goes fists flying again. Love runs him into the exposed buckle again for a long 2. Patterson gives Love a chair. Chairshots for Austin. Double underhook DDT on the chair! Austin kicks out! He kicks the chair into Love's face! Chairshot to Love's head! He covers. Vince refuses to count! While Austin argues Love tries to come from behind with the chair, but Austin dodges and Vince takes another head chairshot! Stunner to Love! Proper ref Mike Chioda runs in to count. Patterson pulls him out at 2! Mandible Claw on Austin again! Patterson goes in to count. Taker pulls him out! He chokeslams Patterson through the English announce table! Now Brisco tries to count. Taker pulls him out. There's one table left. Brisco is chokeslammed through the Spanish announce table! Stunner! Austin covers, then uses Vince's arm to count 3! Vince said, only by my own hand will this match end. Word kept. Austin and Taker stare down a bit before Taker leaves, expression completely unreadable. This is one of the definitive matches of the Attitude Era. Yes, it's been copied and imitated so many times as the years have gone on it's easy to forget how great the original was, but it still is. ****1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- A must see main event that's one of the highlights of the era, a mostly watchable undercard and the usual fun character stuff you got from this era make this a fairly solid Attitude Era B PPV.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+